23 (film)

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For another movie by a similar name, see The Number 23.

23
French DVD Cover for 23.
Directed by	Hans-Christian Schmid
Produced by	Jakob Claussen Thomas Wöbke
Written by	Hans-Christian Schmid Michael Gutmann Michael Dierking
Starring	August Diehl Fabian Busch
Music by	Norbert Jürgen Schneider
Distributed by	Buena Vista Internatonal (Germany)
Release date(s)	1998
Running time	99 min
Language	German
IMDb profile

23 is a 1998 German movie about a young hacker Karl Koch, who supposedly committed suicide on May 23, 1989. It was directed by Hans-Christian Schmid, who also participated in screenwriting. The title derives from the protagonist's obsession with the number 23, a phenomenon often described as apophenia. Although the film was well received by critics and audiences, its accuracy has been vocally disputed by some witnesses to the real-life events on which it was based. It is worth noting that Gutmann and Schmid have authored a book that, apart from telling the story of the making of 23, also details the differences between the events and persons in the movie and in reality.

[edit] Plot

In Germany in the 1980s — at the height of the Cold War — the 19-year-old Karl Koch (August Diehl) finds the world around him threatening and chaotic. Inspired by the fictitious character Hagbard Celine (from Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy), he starts investigating the backgrounds of political and economic power and discovers signs that make him believe in a worldwide conspiracy.

At a meeting with hackers, Karl gets to know the student David (Fabian Busch). David and Karl are able to hack into the global data network — which is still, at this point, in its early stages — and their belief in social justice propels them into espionage for the KGB.

Driven by contacts with a drug dealer — and by increasing KGB pressure to hack successfully into foreign systems — Karl spirals into a cocaine dependency and grows increasingly alienated from David.

In a drug-addled state, Karl begins to sit in front of his computer for days at a time. Perpetually sleepless, he also grows increasingly delusional. When David publicly reveals the espionage activity in which the two men have been engaged, Karl is left alone to face the consequences. Collapse soon follows. Karl is taken to a hospital to deal with his drug addiction and mysteriously dies afterward.